Beauford Delaney museum at Beck Center needs $2 million as vision expands

One day, the Rev. Renee Kesler believes Beauford Delaney will be viewed as the greatest abstract artist of all time. So it's only right a museum dedicated to him is special, with no expense spared.

But quality takes time and money. Those things are what the Beck Cultural Exchange Center and Kesler, its president, need to finish the Delaney Museum at Beck on Dandridge Avenue.

Kesler told Knox News the museum is expected to open May 15, 2025, after previously being expected to open in early 2024. The total budget for the museum is about $3.5 million, nearly triple what was previously needed due to rising construction costs and expanding plans.

The Beck Center has raised over $1.2 million and Kesler said the museum needs an additional $2.3 million to execute the full vision for a museum that she argues is "the single most important project we have in the city."

Kesler won't stop until she has the money to create the perfect museum. She isn't planning on more delays.

"I believe that this project is supposed to happen. I will not scale down. And I'm going to believe that we're going to hit that deadline. But we won't stop until we get there," Kesler said. "We will keep going until we get there, but we will not compromise the project."

The Beck Center purchased the home in 2015 as part of a community revitalization project. It is the last ancestral home of Delaney, according to the center's website.

Community members broke ground on the museum in 2021 and began working on designs.

Beauford Delaney Museum will be more than just exhibits

Plans for the museum initially resembled a typical house museum, Kesler said, but those plans have "metamorphosized into something better and larger and more grandioso."

Kesler envisions a showpiece museum created for local and international audiences.

In addition to rotating exhibits throughout the house, the second floor will be a studio apartment inspired by Delaney's Parisian chateau where artists of color from around the country can stay.

The artist residence program will allow creatives to make art "amid the backdrop of what Beauford Delaney might have looked like when he was in Paris, France," Kesler said.

"It really opens up the opportunity to expose other artists in our community, as well as bringing in artists from outside of our community," Kesler said. "We'll really become a showpiece and we don't have that here in Knoxville."

Delaney was born in Knoxville in 1901 and was drawn by the Harlem Renaissance to New York in 1929, according to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. His pastel portraits gained recognition from influential figures like W. E. B. Du Bois and Duke Ellington by the mid 1940s. He became close friends with novelists Henry Miller and James Baldwin.

The acclaimed artist moved to Paris in 1953, where he lived until he died in 1979 after dealing with mental health struggles.

Aiming for spring construction

On the surface, not much has been done to the Delaney house. But lots of work has been done in the background to get ready for construction.

Engineers have been surveying the house, and architects are waiting for necessary permits from the city. Once those are approved, construction on the nearly 115-year-old house can begin, which Kesler hopes is sometime this spring.

In the meantime, she is focusing on raising the additional $2 million needed to finish the museum's design. The Beck Center is reaching back out to previous donors, and Kesler said anyone can donate, no matter the size of their contribution.

"I believe that there is a massive return on this investment that literally will change the economy of our city," Kesler said. "When we do this, and we do it right, we will change the economy because we'll drive tourism from around the world for generations to come."

Silas Sloan is the growth and development reporter. Email [email protected]. Twitter @silasloan. Instagram @knox.growth.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Beauford Delaney Museum at Beck Center needs more funding